The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

If someone could name a few mods I should download to improve the graphics that'd be awesome :p. If you're going to name some skyrim nexus mods I'd appreciate it if you, also teach me how to use nexus too.

Nexus Mod Manager has warnings built in for basic conflicts. Mostly simple stuff like redundant textures and scripts that make direct changes to the same item or cell as another mod.

Also download and use a program called BOSS ("Better Oblivion Sorting Software", also on the Nexus). This will help you get your basic load order sorted, and will warn you of some conflicts, as well as some kinds of poorly built/broken mods.

While browsing for mods, mostly you want to think about whether the mod's "jurisdiction" overlapps with another mod you've already got installed. So, say, if you've got a mod installed that changes the way weather works, you'll want to read comments or ask about compatabilty yourself before installing a mod that changes animal behavior based on the weather.

When it comes to graphics mods, mostly that means textures. In that case, DL a few texture mods outside NMM first so you can look at how the data folder is stuctured for assets. Knowing where different stuff lives in the data folder will alow you to part out texture mods so you can get, say, the trees from one but the grass from another instead of having to pick between whole packadges.

When two texture mods directly conflict, one will simply replace the other rather than breaking anything in the game. Mostly you'll have to be wary when replacing meshes, as half the time the new meshes UV mapping will not match up with the old. Whenever installing a mesh relpacing mod, always read to find out if it uses the vanilla textures (in which case it will also use any texture that replace the vanilla ones) or if it needs it's own custom textures.

The other major graphics mod type is Direct-X modifiers. ENB and SweetFX are the two big ones. With ENB you mostly just gotta make sure you're using the right version of the base ENB files to go with whichever custom settings files you're downloading, but that info will always be in the Read Me or the page description on Nexus. These cannot be installed via NMM, BTW, but that's okay because the instructions are simple and always in th Read Mes anyway.